These offerings and musings are currently taking place on the ancestral, traditional, and stolen lands of the Seminole, Miccosukee, and Tequesta First Nations. These lands known as Miami.
These are stolen lands built by stolen people
How susceptible to propaganda and myths are you?
How susceptible to propaganda are you? How easy is it for you to fall for a scam? If a cult was courting you, would you be able to recognize the signs?
The ability of most of us to honestly and effectively answer this question will determine how long the United States will remain a liberal democracy. The number one enemy of our republic is rooted in the inability of most citizens to recognize propaganda and to resist being seduced by cults and myths.
Propaganda is defined as information that is biased or misleading and used to promote or publicize a particular point of view.
On May 14th, 2022, an eighteen-year-old young man drove over 200 miles to Buffalo, New York, and committed a mass shooting, and his target was Black people. Ten Black people, mainly women, were killed, and the shooter was motivated by hate, yes, but the thing that compelled him to make that drive and to choose a grocery store in a Black neighborhood was his belief in a racist conspiratorial theory that has become mainstream with the help of Tucker Carlson of FOX News.
A recent poll shows that one in three United Stateians believe that there is a concerted effort to replace “Native-born Americans'' and the strategy being used is immigration. The Great Replacement theory puts forth the idea that white voters in the West are being “replaced” by non-whites through immigration. And although African-Americans are not immigrants white people who practice white supremacy see Black people as the perpetual Other. Never mind that Black people were stolen and trafficked to this country by settlers, dehumanized, turned into chattel, and forced to work stolen lands - we are still not seen as humans, let alone full citizens of these United States. And we are being punished for daring to survive.
Ain’t that some shit?
As a digital Black feminist thinker and scholar, I love the internet and love what is available and possible on the internet. I have come across so much life-affirming information on the internet. This newsletter is, in fact, a testament to my love of the internet and how you can use it as a tool to help keep you politically sharp and savvy. The media tends to hyperfocus on the people who fall into incel traps and Q-anon holes on the internet, aka the people who get red-pilled, but people also get blue-pilled on the internet. People are becoming politicized in lots of directions and lots of biases are also being confirmed on the internet as well.
So how do you know if you are not falling for the propaganda trap?
No one group of people has a monopoly on conspiracy thinking. All the people I know who believe in a weird conspiracy theory vote Democrat, make good money, are well educated, and do not watch FOX News. But it is very hard in our society not to bump into or collude with conspiratorial thinking. Recently, a report highlighted that many teens were unable to decipher between a fake news story and a credible one. And teens are not the only ones who suffer from this; many adults also do not have the media literacy needed to combat U.S.-based propaganda. Sure many of us do not believe in “the big lie” we accept and affirm that President Joe Biden won the last election. We do not believe in Q, but that does not mean we do not flirt with other kinds of lies that have also become mainstreamed or benign. Below I have compiled a list of conspiracy theories and myths that I have bumped into on my journey.
What conspiratorial ideas or myths do you flirt with not so secretly?
Do you believe Dr. Sebi cured AIDS?
Do you believe Tupac is alive?
Do you believe your G-d and your religion has supreme authority over all the earth and, therefore, should be proselytized to ensure new converts?
Do you believe in the healing powers of detoxing, teas, and alkaline water?
Do you believe Jay-Z and Beyonce are part of The Illuminati?
Do you believe the United States did not send a man to the moon?
Do you believe that Bill Gates or the government is harming its citizens through COVID-19 vaccinations?
Do you believe that trans women are trying to co-opt and destroy the category of woman?
Do you believe that President George W. Bush and Vice President Cheney told us the truth about the Iraq war?
Have you ever gotten into a multi-level marketing pyramid scheme and tried to convince others to join?
Do you believe in and promote the patriarchal and misogynistic thoughts and ideas that Kevin Samuels, Umar Johnson, etc. have popularized?
Do you believe that Jewish people are a powerful minority amassing secret power and calling all the shots globally?
Do you believe Sinbad was in a movie called Shazam?
Do you believe that Ed McMahon traveled around the United States delivering Publishers House Clearing Checks?
Do you believe that the concept for the movie The Matrix was conceptualized and stolen from a Black woman?
Do you believe Black people are the real Israelites?
Do you believe systemic and structural racism is no match for the law of attraction?
Do you believe autism is caused by vaccines or gut health? Or that significant mental health conditions can be solved by diet and gut health?
Do you believe the Earth is flat like Kyrie Irving once did?
Do you believe that Black men are the most “endangered” subjects within the Black community?
Do you believe that feminism is destroying the Black community?
Do you believe gender is binary? And that there are fundamental differences between men and women that can be answered through biology?
Do you believe that there is a gay agenda to make children queer and transgender, and media is its most powerful tool?
Do you believe that for children sexually assaulted and who grow up to identify as queer, transgender, or non-binary that their sexual and gender identity stems from their childhood sexual abuse?
This is not an exhaustive list, but which ideas have you flirted with in the past, or which ones still have you in a vice grip now? The ideas on this list are all conspiratorial ideas and myths that can be disproven through research on the internet. However, if you are deeply committed to these lies, you will also find lots of “evidence” on the internet to support your claim. Do you have the tools to be able to tell the difference between confirmation bias and facts?
Not all conspiracy thinking will lead to a racist mass shooting, but our republic is being harmed deeply due to many of its citizen’s inability to separate fact from fiction.
So again, I ask how susceptible to propaganda are you and what is your plan to safeguard yourself from falling into a propaganda hole, however deep or shallow the hole?
VIEWINGS AND READINGS:
Tedcore: the self-help books that have changed the way we live, think and speak by Steven Phillips Horst - “These books peddle feel-good Marvel movie versions of philosophy that don’t challenge our conceptions, but validate our feelings, often backing up their circular logic with dubious 'research' and 'experts'. They cajole and condescend, opening neural pathways that lead directly to the author’s paywalled Substack. Tedcore doesn’t attempt to decode what others are thinking, instead turning the gaze to our navels, pathologizing our every thought I call this genre 'Tedcore'. Most of these authors have given Ted talks, and much like the popular conference series, these books are accessible yet vaguely highbrow, prone to presenting the mundane as revelatory. With every new trite slogan she drops, the Ted speaker doesn’t just imply, 'Aren’t I amazing?' – she says, 'Aren’t we amazing?!' Everyone gets to leave feeling smarter and more special. Unlike its pluckier predecessors (Men are From Mars, Women are Venus or How to Win Friends and Influence People), Tedcore doesn’t attempt to decode what others are thinking, instead turning the gaze to our navels, pathologizing our every thought.”
Your Favorite Artists Are Rapping About Therapy by Jordan Rose - “Going to therapy, specifically, is a topic that many artists have shied away from in their music—until recently. One of the most visible examples of a superstar rapper addressing therapy on an album was Jay-Z on 4:44, where he faced his infidelity, familial trauma, and ego head-on. “My therapist said I relapsed,” Hov raps on “Smile,” a song about his mother discovering her sexuality. Now, nearly five years later, two of rap’s biggest stars have openly rapped about the benefits of going to therapy (Drake in his verse on Jack Harlow’s “Churchill Downs” and Kendrick throughout his new album Mr. Morale & The Big Steppers) during Mental Health Awareness Month. This represents a big step forward when it comes to breaking down the stigmas surrounding mental health.”
Recent surge in U.S. drug overdoese has hit Black men the hardest by John Gramlich - “While overdose death rates have increased in every major demographic group in recent years, no group has seen a bigger increase than Black men. As a result, Black men have overtaken White men and are now on par with American Indian or Alaska Native men as the demographic groups most likely to die from overdoses.”
Inequality Kills: The unparalled actions needed to combat unprecendeted inequality in the wake of COVID-19 OXFAM Report - “The wealth of the world’s 10 richest men has doubled since the pandemic began. The incomes of 99% of humanity are worse off because of COVID-19. Widening economic, gender, and racial inequalities—as well as the inequality that exists between countries—are tearing our world apart. This is not by chance, but choice: “economic violence” is perpetrated when structural policy choices are made for the richest and most powerful people. This causes direct harm to us all, and to the poorest people, women and girls, and racialized groups most. Inequality contributes to the death of at least one person every four seconds. But we can radically redesign our economies to be centered on equality. We can claw back extreme wealth through progressive taxation; invest in powerful, proven inequality-busting public measures; and boldly shift power in the economy and society. If we are courageous, and listen to the movements demanding change, we can create an economy in which nobody lives in poverty, nor with unimaginable billionaire wealth—in which inequality no longer kills.”
Why Is It So Hard for Black Creators to Get Their Due? by Moises Mendez II - “Nearly a year after the dance strike — in which a group of creators very openly refused to participate in viral dances — Black creators on TikTok still face challenges when it comes to getting their due. In response to the complaints, TikTok took a series of steps to show support for Black creators. This included a page titled “Crediting Creators,” which outlined how to properly acknowledge originators of a trend, a TikTok for Black creators incubator program, an initiative to #SupportBlackBusinesses, and a partnership with MACRO to award $50,000 grants to 10 creators.”
What’s Your Rate of Inflation -”Inflation is at the highest level in four decades. But how you experience it can vary greatly depending on what you eat, how much you travel and your other spending habits. Answer seven questions to estimate your personal inflation rate.”
Matching With The Enemy by Amanda Florian - “When it comes to injustices in the world, a lot of young people, like Nora, feel inclined to get involved, utilize their resources, and try their best to help out. In fact, Nora is just one of the myriad individuals who’ve begun using apps like Hinge, Badoo, and Tinder to share news about the Russia-Ukraine war. Though she doesn’t speak Russian herself, her parents and friends do, which is how she was able to get her initial message translated into Russian in the first place.”
Brittney Griner’s Wife Doesn’t Think the WNBA Player’s Release Is a ‘Top Priority for Bidenby Emily Leibert “Cherelle later spoke with ESPN’s Angela Rye, retelling the story of the last time she spoke to Griner: “She was so exhausted from always having to go overseas. We talked about it, and I was like, well, you know what babe? Let’s make this your last season overseas. I was like, you don’t have to go back anymore. We’ll figure something else out when it comes to pay.”
Interior Department Realeses Indian Boarding School Report by Jenna Kunze - “The 106-page report—penned by Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs Bryan Newland—details for the first time that the federal government operated or supported 408 boarding schools across 37 states, including Alaska and Hawai’i, between 1819 and 1969. About half of the boarding schools were staffed or paid for by a religious institution. The investigation identified marked and unmarked burial sites at 53 of those schools, though the DOI expects to find the number of children buried at boarding schools across the nation to be in the “thousands or tens of thousands,” as the investigation continues.”
I Won’t Stop Intellectualizing the Kardashians by MJ Corey - “These deep dives demonstrate one method by which we can make meaning of the Kardashians’ cultural magnitude: a prompt for deeper inquiry about topics that ultimately transcend the Kardashians as people and instead position them as representations. Representations of the complexity of racial mutability in America, the entrenched tradition of white consumption of Black culture and the wave of social media-perpetuated performative activism that we’re all increasingly grappling with. And that seemingly silly content analysis? When done well, it can offer insight into the power of narrative, which we tend to take for granted despite the fact that narrative is a driving force behind all publicity and politics.”
Why Every Leader Needs To Worry About Toxic Culture by Donad Sull, Charles Sull, William Cipolli, and Caio Brighenti- “Toxic culture, as we reported in a recent article, was the single best predictor of attrition during the first six months of the Great Resignation — 10 times more powerful than how employees viewed their compensation in predicting employee turnover.1 The link between toxicity and attrition is not new: By one estimate, employee turnover triggered by a toxic culture cost U.S. employers nearly $50 billion per year before the Great Resignation began.”
‘Buy now, pay later,’is sending the TikTok generation spiraling into debt, popularize by San Francisco tech firms -by Joshua Bote - Most buy now, pay later services operate as a sort of hybrid between traditional credit cards and layaway. They provide short-term financing on anything from a Gucci handbag to an American Airlines flight, splitting the payment into four chunks, with the first payment due at the time of purchase. The rest is usually paid off either monthly or every two weeks. “These buy now, pay later programs incentivize people to spend above their means, because they're like, ‘Oh, well, it's only this amount over four months,’” Celesta, a Bay Area fashion influencer on TikTok who posts as @itscelesta, told SFGATE. (She declined to give her last name.) “People almost like brag or joke that ‘oh, it was only 24 payments of $20’ or ‘I got it with Afterpay, so it's technically free.’”
Trends are dead by Terry Nguyen - “These submarkets are not entirely void of politics. Instead, they often promote a sort of political anesthetization. The digital embodiment of a certain aesthetic or attitude (i.e., “reactionary chic”) takes precedence over genuine political resistance. Recuperation, at least on TikTok, isn’t always a process of depoliticization. It’s an attempt at repackaging ideas, attitudes, and aesthetics into identifiable trends — something that can be capitalized on for attention or profit, comprehended, and widely consumed by a mass audience.”
Western Architectture Making India’s Hetwave Worse by Ciara Nugent - “Benny Kuriakose remembers when his father built the first house in his village in the southern Indian state of Kerala with a concrete roof. It was 1968, and the family was proud to use the material, he says, which was becoming a “status symbol” among villagers: the new home resembled the modern buildings cropping up in Indian cities, which in turn resembled those in images of Western cities.
But inside, the house was sweltering. The solid concrete absorbed heat throughout the dayand radiated it inside at night. Meanwhile, neighboring thatch-roofed houses stayed cool: the air trapped between gaps in the thatch was a poor conductor of heat.”
ANNOUNCEMENTS:
Platonic Love Mixer:
Calling all the gworls, girlies, and theys: let’s be friends boo!
Making friends as an adult is hard, especially in Miami and I want to help you.
The Social Justice Doula would like to cordially invite you to the Platonic Love Mixer, a space to find friendship and community. It’s happening on Friday, June 17th from 5:30 p.m. - 8:30 p.m @ 400 NW 26th Street.
This Platonic Love Mixer is a multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-gendered, intergenerational space for women, femmes, and non-binary people who want to make new friends across race and gender and who also want to find your people within your community. This means it does not matter if you are a member of Gen-Z, Millennial, Geriatric Millennial, Xennial, Gen-X, or Boomer. People from all walks of life are encouraged to please come out and let’s platonically mingle together!
This is a queer-centric femme space. What does that mean? Great question bestie, it means the space will center on Black and non-Black transgender women, femmes, and themmes. However, all other people who also identify as women, femmes, and non-binary are welcome to come.
Bring your bestie with you and come with the spirit of making a new potential friend. There will be lite bites and non-alcoholic drinks available. Broward folks, this is so worth you crossing the county line ;)
This is a ticketed event.
Women Authors Across Cultures, Where Are We Going?" Recording: Here is the link to watch the panel I was a part of last month!
Social Justice Doula Youtube Channel Launch: My Youtube page officially launched. Check it out here!
Patreon Shoutout: We want to give a special shoutout to our patrons who pledged this month!
Andy